A/N: My other stories
are taking too long so I thought I'd write a bit of an EO oneshot.
It isn't fluff, it might be a bit dark but I think it turned out
pretty good. Please R&R

"Why Olivia?" his
voice is low and harsh. He's losing everything, its all crumbling
around him, he's losing control and she stands in his way, not
letting him sink.

"Elliot leave," she
tells him forcefully, taking a step back from him. He's angry, she
can feel it radiating from him. He's starting to scare her as he
takes another step towards her.

"I don't need to
see Huang or any other shrink for that matter!" he screams "There
is nothing wrong with me!"

She backs away again.
She wonders why it is she let him in tonight in the first place. He
says there's nothing wrong with him but it is more than obvious
from his behavior that something is "Please? Just leave Elliot,"
her voice is meek, small, timid, her voice is not her own at this
moment.

He advances towards her
again "Why?" he asks in a low tone that sends fear coursing
through her blood.

She steps back once
more, her back hits the wall. She has been cornered, cornered by her
partner, cornered in her apartment. Even if she was anywhere near
her gun at this time, she could never bring herself to pull it on
him. She's never felt more vulnerable as he advances towards her
once more.

"Why?" he asks
again. He places both his feet onto hers so that she cannot kick and
with his hands he pins her wrists to the wall. She is stuck, she is
at his mercy, she is trying her hardest not to cry, more than
anything she wants to run but she is backed into a corner.

"I was worried,"
she says meekly. She tries to find anywhere else to stare but finds
her gaze always being pulled back to his. He glares cold and hard at
her with blue eyes that have seen the hell of the world. She tries
to wriggle her right wrist free but to no avail. He only clamps his
hand tighter around it.

"Elliot!" she
commands, attempting to regain control of the situation "Let me
go!" He leans more heavily on her. Almost impossibly, pressing
her even further into the wall. His hands clamp tighter around her
wrists and he stomps his left foot down on her right one.

He isn't responding
to her attempt at authority and she has no other choice but to beg
"Please Elliot," she whimpers because that is the most she can
manage "Your hurting me. Please let go," she tries to keep the
tears from her eyes but they spring forth anyway. Without a free
hand to wipe them away, she begrudgingly allows them to fall down her
face.

He sees her tears and
it is only then that he realizes what he is doing. Quickly he pulls
away.

Olivia crumples to the
floor, not so much from physical pain as from the emotional agony
that he has inflicted on her. The only man who she has ever really
trusted has shattered that trust in all of five minutes.

"I'm sorry," is
all he can say for himself. He knows that this is not enough, that
somehow more words are needed to describe how what he has just done
will never leave him. How the sight of her tears on her face and the
knowledge that he is the one responsible for putting them there will
haunt his every waking and sleeping moment for the rest of his life.

She remains sitting on
the floor, her legs curled up to her chest, her arms wrapped around
them, her head buried deep in the little ball of self loathing and
shame that is her. She doesn't speak, doesn't look at him, all
that can be heard is her soft, almost silent sobbing.

He doesn't know what
to do, what to say. He wants to know if she is alright but he knows
that he has lost the right to touch her, he knows that he shouldn't
even be standing in her apartment at this moment but he can't leave
her.

"Liv," he says, his
voice full of the old concern and protectiveness that she has come to
depend on.

She dares to glance in
his direction. The utterance of the nick name, the one word that he
had been the first to use, a small sign of affection between them has
caught her attention. It always makes her heart skip a beat when he
says those three little letters. She stares at him and through her
tears she can see that he is hurting too. This was exactly the
reason that she had talked to Huang about him, exactly the reason she
had been worried. Because in the last year and a half, there have
been moments where he becomes someone completely different, moments
where Elliot Stabler is lost and she doesn't know where he is and
it seems these days that Elliot is not with her at all, even when he
is standing right next to her.

He takes in her
silence. He wonders if the nick name is yet another thing that he
has lost privilege to. He takes a step towards her again but recoils
when he sees her flinch. Instead he drops to a sitting position on
the floor in the exact spot where he had previously been standing.

The two of them sit,
legs crossed, on the floor of Olivia's apartment, with a good five
feet between them, simply staring at each other. Silence reins but
neither makes a move to leave. The situation is uncomfortable for
both of them but somehow they stay in spite of the discomfort because
even though what has just occurred is painful for both, their
friendship means enough to them that they are not willing to abandone
it just yet.

"I was worried,"
she says again, wiping the tears from her eyes only to have them
replaced with fresh ones.

"I know," he
responds, looking down to play with his shoe lace "I'm sorry I…
I have no right… to ever… I'm so sorry." He can't get out a
full thought. He can't find the exact words to express the guilt,
the shame, how he could have easily taken it further, how he is so
afraid that he could have lost it and in an instant taken what no man
should ever take from his partner, how he feels dirty now, how he is
so lucky that she stopped him with her tears.

"Its alright," she
attempts to reassure him, always more than ready to forgive the
trespasses of those that she loves.

He can't believe what
she has just said. He knows dam well that it isn't alright. If
she only knew the things he could have done if he hadn't stopped,
she wouldn't be so willing to forgive.

But she does know. She
knows all to well what can happen when a man can't stop himself.
She credits him with the self control to pull away because he is the
first who has.

"Please don't worry
about me," he tells her. He knows now that she was right to worry,
that something is indeed wrong with him but that she shouldn't
concern herself with it. Because what has just happened tonight in
this room is affirmation of the fact that she is too good for him and
so he makes a silent vow right there as he sits on her floor, as he
plays with his shoe laces, he vows to talk to Huang in the morning,
to seek out real help because he knows as he looks up at Olivia, that
she is worth it.

"I do worry," she
tells him, not backing down from the conversation, in spite of
everything that has occurred tonight, not willing to abandon him. He
may have shattered her trust but he hasn't vaporized it. Trust in
Elliot is something that she is willing to spend the time rebuilding.

"Why do you worry?"
he asks. He can't think of a possible reason that she could still
care enough about him after what he has almost done.

"Why do you always
argue nature verses nurture?" she responds with her own question.
She knows that when he finds the answer to this question he will find
the answer to his own.

He pauses to remember.
It has been a while since he has gone to argumentative lengths to
convince her that she is nothing like her father. He thinks why he
argues that point so vehemently with her. It was because he wanted
to protect her, because he cares about her, because…

"Because I love you,"
he says aloud "Because I can't bare to think of you hurting,
because I can't think of a day without your smile," the words
come out and he realizes what antithesis they are in contrast to his
actions earlier "Do you?" he asks, needing to know if she truly
loves him, if she possibly still can after the humungous ass that he
has shown himself to be tonight.

"Always," is the
one word that drops from her lips. Forgiveness is something that she
will allow him, forgiveness is something that she will let herself
spare to him, with all the broken trust, still she knows the good man
that he is, that he will get through this, that he will come back to
her.

His heart jumps with
the realization. She loves him, she loves him! He will definitely
go to see Huang. In that instant he wonders if Huang is still awake.
Then he decides to hell with it if he isn't. Elliot will drag
Huang out of bed himself to get the help that he knows that he so
desperately needs to never hurt Olivia again like this. He springs
to his feet and rushes to the door.

"Goodnight Liv!" he
calls back joyously as he approaches the door "I'll see you
tomorrow."

His hand is on the door
knob when he feels her hand on his shoulder. He turns to face her to
notice eyes that no longer hold tears. A soft smile graces her lips
as she speaks "Tomorrow is Saturday."

He smiles and nods "I
meant what I said. See you tomorrow," with that he is out the door
and on his way to see Huang.

Olivia shuts the door
behind him and leans against it, the soft smile still on her face.
She doesn't know about his plans for a late night shrink session
but she does know that he changed for the better during the time he
was in her apartment.

She knows that things
have changed between them but she can feel deep down a warm feeling
that things will be alright. No matter what she knows that it was
Elliot Stabler and not his alter ego that promised to see her
tomorrow. She knows that it was Elliot Stabler that told her "I
love you"

It will take a long
time for the wounds of tonight, the wounds of the past year and a
half, to heel but as she gets ready to go to bed she thinks that "I
love you" is a good start.

THE END

A/N: Well that's it.
I dedicate this story to everyone who has ever read or reviewed a fan
fiction ever and to all the writers of fan fictions and also to
anyone who has ever watched an episode of SVU. In the immortal words
of Kermit the Frog "Someday we'll find it… The rainbow
connection… The lovers, the dreamers and me." You are all
wonderful.

The author would like to thank you for your continued support. Your review has been posted.